In order to increase the washing or cleaning performance of presoaks or detergent compositions, it has long been known to include enzymes. Enzymes are important and essential components of biological systems, their function being to catalyze and facilitate organic and inorganic reactions. For example, enzymes are essential to metabolic reactions occurring in animal and plant life.
Enzymes are generally simple proteins or conjugated proteins produced by living organisms and functioning as biochemical catalysts which, in detergent technology, degrade or alter one or more types of soil residues encountered on surfaces such as food utensils or textiles thus removing the soil or making the soil more removable by the detergent-cleaning system. Both degradation and alteration of soil residues improve detergency by reducing the physicochemical forces which bind the soil to the surface being cleaned, i.e. the soil becomes more water soluble.
Enzymes are referred to as simple proteins when they require only their protein structures for catalytic activity. Enzymes are described as conjugated proteins if they require a non-protein component for activity, termed cofactor, which is a metal or an organic biomolecule often referred to as a coenzyme. Cofactors are not involved in the catalytic events of enzyme function. Rather, their role seems to be one of maintaining the enzyme in an active configuration. As used herein, enzyme activity refers to the ability of an enzyme to perform the desired catalytic function of soil degradation or alteration; and, enzyme stability pertains to the ability of an enzyme to remain or to be maintained in the active state.
Enzymes are extremely effective catalysts. In practice, very small amounts will accelerate the rate of soil degradation and soil alteration reactions without themselves being consumed in the process. Enzymes also have substrate (soil) specificity which determines the breadth of their catalytic effect. Some enzymes interact with only one specific substrate molecule (absolute specificity); whereas, other enzymes have broad specificity and catalyze reactions on a family of structurally similar molecules (group specificity).
It has long been known to incorporate enzymes into warewash detergents and presoaks in order to increase the washing or cleaning performance of the compositions. Examples of such enzymes include proteases, amylases, lipases, hemicellulases and cellulases. While incorporating enzymes may result in enhanced performance, it also increases the cost of the detergent and/or presoak. Enzymes are generally expensive ingredients as compared to the other components of a warewashing detergent. It would be desirable to reduce the amount of enzyme necessary in a detergent or presoak yet to maintain the enzyme's effectiveness as if it were present in a greater concentration.
The present invention addresses and resolves this and other issues.